TRANSIT took note of the following article describing legal issues that will delay the approval of the Kinrara-Damansara Expressway.

Apparently the company that will build the expressway and has received ‘conditional approval’ from the Works Ministry and support from Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim, has failed to get approval from the Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya…in fact their plans have been rejected 3 times!

KiDEx Sdn Bhd may face a major setback in its plan to build its RM2.42 billion super-elevated highway in Selangor as it has not obtained approval from the city’s local council office.

The Malay Mail Online understands that the proposal for the controversial Kinrara-Damansara Expressway (KIDEX) was rejected on three occasions by the Petaling Jaya Municipal Council (MBPJ) as developers had failed to provide sufficient details on the project.

TRANSIT took note of the following article describing changes to bus service in Johor Baru, with a new “no pick up” order for Jalan Wong Ah Fook, diversion of urban stage buses to Larkin Sentral, and a new free shuttle bus connecting the two areas.

JOHOR Baru City Council has come up with a solution to the the problem of traffic congestion in Jalan Wong Ah Fook, which it believes is caused by the long queue of stage buses waiting for passengers.

The council recently announced that effective May 1, all stage buses plying the northwest route, which is basically the Skudai corridor, may only drop off passengers by the road. They will not be allowed to pick up passengers.

Mohd Nur Kamal, chief executive of the Land Public Transport Commission which just turned 1 in January, tells Tan Choe Choe that his agency is looking at several options but more time is needed to come up with the best solution to the national bus crisis.

TRANSIT took note of this interesting piece of information from the Selangor Times – a plan for “Rapid Transit Bus” routes, minibus services and limited-stop bus routes in Petaling Jaya.

Selangor Times diagram showing proposals for public transport in Petaling Jaya.

Click here for a larger version of the image above. The February 3, 2012 issue of Selangor Times can be seen here in the scribd feed.

The proposed line would run from a bus terminal in SS7 (near the proposed SS7 LRT station?) to the bus terminal in Damansara Damai, running via Subang Airport Road, Jalan Sg. Buloh and Jalan Kuala Selangor. Whether or not the line can be considered as “Bus Rapid Transit” (or another name for Bus Expressway Transit or Expressway Rapid Transit) remains to be seen – after all, we (indeed, the public in general) have to look at the details of the plan.

According to this article in the Selangor Times, “Water taxis in PJ by 2015?” boats and hovercrafts will also ferry passengers from jetties built along Sungai Damansara, Sungai Kayu Ara, Sungai Penchala, Sungai Tambul and Sungai Payong.

Seriously? As great (well, “creative”) as all these ideas are, we would like to see the MBPJ take the steps to improve public transport first – like setting up a public transport / urban transport office to determine how realistic and feasible these plans are.

Then, engage with the public to set up a MBPJ transport council to discuss these proposals, and implement actual public consultation to see if the public actually want these proposed services.

Finally, figure out how to run the service in a way that actually works and get people to use public transport.

KUALA LUMPUR: Syarikat Prasarana Negara Berhad (Prasarana) and Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) yesterday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in an effort to create professionals in the rail industry and improve the quality of Malaysia’s public transportation system.

Prasarana group managing director Datuk Shahril Mokhtar said that under the MoU, UTHM would introduce a new Masters in Railway Engineering course this year where qualified staff of Prasarana’s rail division will have preference in gaining entry to the university.

“This we believe will open a new era in pursuance of excellence in education and further uplift the standard of Malaysia’s railway industry specifically, and public transportation in general,” he told reporters after the signing here.

Shahril inked the MoU for Prasarana while UTHM was represented by its vice-chancellor, Prof Datuk Dr Mohd Noh Dalimin.

Elaborating, Shahril said the strategic collaboration with institutions of higher learning was part of Prasarana’s initiatives towards enhancing the quality of its staff, describing them as the company’s key assets in the realisation of its Go Forward Plan (GFP) targets.

“Today also marked a new beginning in Prasarana’s emphasis on development of human capital and staff resourcefulness as we continue rigorous efforts to pursue the agenda of our GFP, which has entered its second year,” he said.

Shahril said that through the programme, Prasarana aimed to inculcate values like innovative thinking, operational excellence and enhanced efficiency among its staff. — Bernama

TRANSIT Says:

As you can imagine, we at TRANSIT are always pleased to hear of initiatives to improve the skills & knowledge & capability of the Malaysian rail industry, towards improving railway engineering and creating a new generation of professional railway engineers.

But a public transport industry cannot be built by railway engineers and civil engineers alone. There is also a need for professional public transport planners, regulators, and experts in the organization and management of public transport services, public transport information relay, communications, asset management, and a thousand other jobs that make for an effective public transport system.

So while we are certainly pleased about the initiative to build up Malaysia’s rail industry, we also need to take steps to develop Malaysia’s public transport industry.

Perhaps it will be SPAD who takes the lead there. But mark what TRANSIT says – someone has to do this job because without this, we will never truly improve public transport in Malaysia.

TRANSIT took note of this interesting and disappointing news about the Brickfields – Jalan Tun Sambanthan bus lane, shut down by the government beginning February 6th, after only 2 months in operation.

The big question from TRANSIT is WHY? What are the reasons why the government chose to back down on the plan for the bus lane, and is this a reflection of a government that listens to public protests, or just poor planning, bad policy, or a weak government?

And more importantly, this really raises questions about strength of the government’s commitment to improving public transport – especially in light of the fact that bus lanes in KL are simply not working right now.

TRANSIT took note of this interesting photo of a sign in one of our LRT trains – advertising improvements to RapidKL bus services.

To the top of the photo, we see an advertisement for RapidBET Route #3, which connects Subang Mewah to Pasar Seni, Kuala Lumpur. And down in the right hand corner, the message “RapidBRT Akan Datang! Coming Soon!”